Posts from — May 2011

It’s been a while. Like, really a while. Yes, I’ve been traveling a bit. I’ve also been (gasp) settling a bit. I know. I know. More to come on that.

It all started with another movie-making adventure. I came down to California to work with some friends on a movie. One written and directed by Nicole Conn. If you don’t know who that is, you’re probably not a lesbian. At least not one of my generation. Because Nicole Conn also wrote and directed one of the only lesbian films that existed when I was in college, “Claire of the Moon.” She also directed last year’s “Elena Undone.”

Listen, when you’re in college and trying to find anything that looks like your life, a movie like the ones that Nicole makes are a lifeline.

So, when I had the opportunity to work on the new film, “A Perfect Ending,” I jumped. I don’t have much experience making movies at all. So, I was a Production Assistant – a “PA”. I emptied trash, and fed the crew, and ended up with some amazing new friends. A new film family that led me to where I am now, living just outside Hollywood, where I’m still working with Nicole’s production company to get this film finished.

That means, I’m working to get this film funded.

I don’t often ask you to do anything. I just ask you to read, and occasionally to comment. Once in a while I ask you to vote for me for something. Now, I’m asking you to support this project that I’m working on.

Because it’s important.

If you’re queer, it’s important to your community. If you’re not, it’s important to my community – a community I consider you a part of as an ally of mine. Either way, it’s important to me. So please read on.

It’s nearly election season again. That’s right. Soon, we’ll all be receiving calls and mailings telling us how important it is that we support causes and politicians that support our community.

But what about just supporting our community?

When’s the last time you had a conversation with a politician? How about the last time you watched a movie, or read a book about our community? Picked up a community newspaper?

The truth is that we rely on the artists that create gay content far more often than we rely on our politicians to support our community. So it’s time to give back.

There was a study that came out recently of how often certain segments of the population go to the movies. Lesbians were smack-dab at the bottom. Seems we go to see a movie in a theater less than once a year.

Yes, I know it’s expensive, and we’re all busy saving the world instead of making money, but here’s why this is significant: when film producers look at whether it makes sense to fund a movie, they look at what segments of the population will support the film in the theater. Which means that almost nobody will fund a lesbian film. Because we don’t go to movies.

And if our movies don’t get made, our stories don’t get told.

That leaves two ways we can work, as a community, to change this.

Go to a movie. No really. Go to a movie once a month. Any movie. Think of it as a contribution to the arts. Arts in your community.

Donate. Give money. Many of us donate generously to political causes, because we understand the importance of the political system in our lives. We know that when we support a politician, they can carry our story with them, and support the communities that are important to us.

We need to do the same thing with our artists. Whether it’s donating to a queer journal, or becoming a funder of a gay film, we need to recognize that this is the only way our stories will be told – if we finance their creation.

Right now, there is a film that needs our contributions. Writer/Director Nicole Conn has spent her lifetime telling our stories. Whether in the lesbian classic “Claire of the Moon,” or last year’s longest-kiss-in-screen-history, “Elena Undone,” Nicole and her production company, Soul Kiss Films are telling our stories. They are also working incredibly hard to fund those stories.

Will you step up and be part of a community that supports its artists? Will you be part of a community that values itself and its stories?

Go now. Donate. $5, $5,000, it all makes a difference. This is a project I have been working on, because I believe in the movie, I believe in the people who are telling our stories, and most importantly, I believe that our stories deserve to be told.